Ann Roberti

Connect with the CMC

The Catskill Mountain Club and Andes Works! announce that they are the recipient of an additional grant from Parks and Trails New York for work on the Andes Rail Trail. Grant funds were received from PTNY in December to allow the groups to purchase and install a trail registration box and three interpretive signs for the Andes Rail Trail.

The registration box, built by Andes resident Fred Reckner, has already been installed on the trail and is recording the comings and goings as well as comments of users of the trail. The information garnered from the trail registers is invaluable for planning trail maintenance, for future trail building projects and to support discussions with town governments, business leaders and communities about the benefits of these trails.

“I have always wanted to have an interpretive sign near the old train turntable on the Rail Trail to show trail users how the operators of the train turned the locomotives 180 degrees using only human power and well-designed mechanisms. It is a fascinating piece of history on the trail that people pass without even noticing” says Ann Roberti, the CMC leader of the Rail Trail project. “Having an interpretive sign with pictures and a description of the turntable will be a wonderful addition to the trail.”

Also planned are signs focusing on additional history as well as the flora and fauna of the trail.

The Andes Rail Trail has previously received grants from Parks and Trails NY which funded the construction of the kiosk and roadside sign as well as the printing of an informational brochure and map.

For more information about the Andes Rail Trail, see the link in Where to Go, above. To learn about becoming a member of the Catskill Mountain Club, click on the Join/Renew/Donate link above. To volunteer for our trail building/trail maintenance work, email Wendell at catskillmountainclub.org.

Help our Board Member, Amy Beveridge, celebrate her birthday on the trail she spearheaded in Delhi!

Amy Beveridge will lead a hike / snowshoe celebration for her birthday on the Bulldog Run Trail. Meet in the Immanuel Lutheran Church parking lot Delhi. (If the lot is full, park across the street at O’Connor Hospital). The trail is moderate with some steepness. Snowshoes may be required (bring in case–will not be provided). Only well behaved dogs allowed. Amy will be bringing her dog.

While everyone is welcome, winter hiking can be dangerous: dress in layers. Wear boots, bring hats, mittens/gloves and snowshoes. Bring water and a snack.

Amy reserves the right to decline anyone deemed unprepared for inclement weather or current trail conditions.

Hike the new FLT trail to the fire tower, 7 miles, a bit strenuous. Well behaved dogs permitted.

Keep in mind that winter hiking can be dangerous: dress in layers. Wear boots, bring hats, mittens/gloves and snowshoes. Bring water and lunch.

Directions- Take NYS Rte 10 or 206 to Walton. Follow Rte. 10 thru Walton, west to the Cannonsville Reservoir for approximately 9-10 miles to the intersection of NYS Rte 268 and the bridge over the Reservoir. PArking is on the north side of the bridge. A FLT trail sign is in the parking area. Contact Rick Roberts at 607 746-9694 for more info. The area has limited cell coverage.

It is really amazing out here in the mountains now! Now that the first real snow has arrived in the Catskills, it’s time to break out the snowshoes and cross country skis, grab your camera and get out there!

With the right equipment, anyone can have an amazing time!

Rime Ice

If your idea of snowshoes is still oversize wooden tennis rackets, you have to look again. Snowshoeing is easier and more fun than ever. New snowshoes are lighter and have teeth to keep the traction on the uphills. Morgan Outdoors in Livingston Manor, the Storehouse in Phoenicia and Mountain Trails in Tannersville are some local outfitters that rent snowshoes, a great way to give it a try. You can snowshoe just about anywhere you can hike, but Rail Trails are great for snow shoeing and Palmer Hill and Shavertown are places we’ve enjoyed lately.

Cross Country Skiing has also seen improvements in equipment. Again, you can rent equipment to give it a try — cross country skiing is free at Belleayre Mountain and ski rentals are available at Jimmy’s Ski Shop at the base of Belleayre. Other great places to ski for free are the Catskills Scenic Trail (packed down by snowmobiles — you’ll be sharing the trail with these courteous folks who have a different idea of outdoor recreation from us) and the Andes Rail Trail. Mountain Trails in Tannersville has ski rentals and groomed trails. And new, this winter, the Storehouse in Phoenicia is renting skis.

CMC Board Member and NYNJ Trail Conference Senior Program Coordinator, Jeff Senterman, has some great winter hiking tips in the blog, Adventures in the Outdoors.

The NYNJ Trail Conference maintains a Catskill Mountain Trail conditions page here, and the 3500 Club has a summary of winter trailhead parking area plowing here – keep in mind it may not be 100% accurate any given year — you should always carry a shovel because you might even need to dig out of a parking area after your hike.

If you don’t know what the lucky few of us already know, that hiking in the winter is a different and glorious experience, come and learn more at the Winter Gear and Gab at Spillian in Fleischmanns on December 14th from 1 to 4 pm. This event is free and open to the public but you must register by Friday 12/12/2014 (see below).

Avid Catskills hiker, CMC Board Member and Trail Conference Catskills Assistant Program Coordinator, Heather Rolland, will present a short program exploring getting started and getting inspired to get outside this winter, with a focus on gear, safety, and special concerns for kids and dogs while in the great outdoors.

Will Soter, the NYNJTC’s Trails Chair for the southern Catskills, will lead a walk on the Spillian grounds, and discuss the many volunteer opportunities available on local trails.

Saturday, November 15th was the first day of “regular” deer hunting season, which continues until December 7th. It is followed by muzzle loading and late bow season which go from 12/8 to 12/16.

That doesn’t mean you have to stay out of the woods for these 4 weeks. You can continue to hike if you follow some common sense practices in hunting season:

• Avoid hiking close to dawn and dusk when hunters are more likely to be in the woods
• Wear blaze orange – hats, pack covers, jackets, etc. Do not wear white, which can be mistaken for the flash of a deer’s tail.
• Don’t forget about orange for your pets as well.
• Stay on trails. This is not the best time of year to bushwhack in areas open to hunting.
• Hike where deer, and therefore hunters, are less likely to be found. Don’t hike in areas that you know are popular with hunters.
• If you hear hunters or gunshots, announce in a loud but polite voice, “Hikers on Trail”

Opening weekend is always the busiest for hunters so consider hiking where hunting isn’t allowed. Check nearby state park regulations here and also check propertiess held by land conservancy organizations.

Join us in Delhi for the official opening of the new Delhi Trails. Meet at the Immanuel Lutheran Church parking lot at 2:00 p.m. and join Catskill Mountain Club members and volunteers as they lead guided hikes on the four miles of much anticipated, newly established hiking trails.

August 15, 2014 – The CMC, in partnership with key community members and organizations including Village, Town, and the School boards, Immanuel Lutheran Church and O’Connor Hospital created this lovely multi-route trail system. Meet at the Immanuel Lutheran Church parking lot at 2:00 p.m. and join Catskill Mountain Club members and volunteers as they lead guided hikes on the four miles of much anticipated, newly established hiking trails.

The Delhi hiking trails consist of over four miles of hiking trails, named for beloved characters in the classic 1959 children’s novel My Side of Mountain which was set in Delhi.

Our friends at the Catskills Forest Association are hosting the 5th Annual Catskill Forest Festival on Saturday, July 26th at the Pavilion in the Village of Margaretville, Delaware County. This is always an entertaining and informative event celebrating our region’s forests. FREE ADMISSION.

Come on out and join the CMC in celebrating National Trails Day at the opening of our newest cooperative venture: the Palmer Hill Trail! The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Catskill Mountain Club (CMC) will open a new hiking trail on Palmer Hill on June 7, 2014 at 2 o’clock.

The trail, which was designed, built and will be maintained by the Catskill Mountain Club, features spectacular views for most of its 3.7 length. The trailhead is located just off Route 28, with parking available at the existing scenic overlook site on Finkle Road. It’s a really special hike – glorious views, extensive stone walls and old foundations, and more open sky than Montana. Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you have to hike the Palmer Hill trail to appreciate the incredible diversity the Catskill region offers. See photos of the trail and learn more about it here….

After the opening “ceremony” and hike, we’re going to hang out and bask in the afterglow (or is that the bonfire we’re feeling) at the after party at Spillian in Fleischmanns. Spillian, along with co-sponsors the NY-NJ Trail Conference and the Catskill Mountain Club, will serve as the celebration headquarters for all of the trails opening in the area. Enjoy the bonfire and back slapping celebrating National Trails Day and the great work that has been done this year to make more trails accessible to people in the region. Free and open to the public, with a special invitations all hikers and trail-builders from all of the trails that are opening on this holiday. Kansas City style BBQ available for $9 and a cash bar. Reservations requested. http://spillian.com/events/national-trails-day/

May 15, 2014 – The Spring Newsletter is here! We invite you to read here. There’s a great article on hiking with your dog, a book review, updates on the club goings on and the announcement of our new Lifetime Membership! And news about the great new CMC wicking shirts and caps

The Village of Delhi is in the process of designing a riverwalk along the West Branch of the Delaware. Currently, there are significant patches of Japanese Knotweed growing in the area. As a first step to removing this invasive species and restoring native plant material, we would like to do a clean-up of the river bank, specifically targeting the Knotweed.

The knotweed removal will take place on Saturday May 3rd, starting at 10 am. Some tools will be provided, but please bring a rake and/or clippers if you have them. We will meet at the basketball court in the village, behind Streat Foods and the Village parking lot. The site is a little bit muddy right now, so prepare accordingly! Thank you!

April 15, 2014 – This is the view you’ll have at the start of the Palmer Hill Trail. Yesterday the CMC got approval from the DEP for the route we’ve planned, and work will begin on the trail very soon. The Palmer Hill trail will be a very different Catskills hiking experience, taking you through beautiful open fields with ancient trees and stone walls in addition to wooded portions. At the right time of year you can even find a snack as there are several great apple trees near the trail.

Look for the grand opening of this trail on June 7th! If you are interested in helping with trail building and haven’t already signed up as a trail worker, please email Wendell@CatskillMountainClub.org.

April 10, 2014 – A big Thank You to Peter Senterman and Kaatskill Life for this great article on the Andes Rail Trail/Bullet Hole Spur and the Shavertown Trail.

The article states: “All in all, this is one of the nicest trails in the area, interesting in its variety, and a comfortable trail for those who like to wander in the woods. It is short enough to walk in a couple of hours, and interesting enough for repeated visits. The Catskill Mountain Club did a superb job with this trail. Congratulations!”

If you can’t make the Annual Ephemeral Wildflower hike Sunday, April 27 with our man of the woods, Howard Raab, or if you can and want to be knowledgeably prepared, you might want to attend the the Garden Talk on spring wildflowers four days earlier in Delhi.

Fishermen, check out the Open House at the Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection at the Phoenicia Library

Check out the new interactive website featuring a “match the hatch” function, see demonstrations of fly tying, book sale and more.

If you’re a Catskills angler and you can’t go, be sure to check their website for the cool digital “hatch chart” of the insects the trout are eating, the artificial flies that best imitate those insects, and when and where to fish the trout. It also offers a history of angling on the Esopus Creek, the natural history of local trout species, recipes for tieing the flies that match the hatch, and more. The content is available on all devices, so users can access it on a desktop or laptop, or carry it with them via tablet or smartphone.

March 4, 2014 – The trail maintenance season is coming soon, but some CMC members got a head start on it by doing trail work on the Big Pond to Alder Lake segment of the Touch-Me-Not Trail. We were out in the snow putting up new trail markers and clearing some downed wood. We’ll be back on this trail again to get the blackberries in the early summer. We’ll be out building and maintaining trails in full force really soon. We hope you’ll come and join us!

We thought we were busy as beavers until we spied this beaver’s work on the way home from Alder Lake.

March 3,2014 – Want to learn more about cycling in the Catskills? Check out a great post from Anton Tutter, co-author of the cycling blog, Riding the Catskills, which chronicles off-the-beaten-path cycling routes in the region. In this post, he shares his adventures cycling over some beautiful, rugged Delaware County roads as he “pass hunts” his way from Bloomville to Bovina to Andes and back to Bloomville. His description and photos will have you longing for bicycling weather – as if this winter wasn’t already doing that for some. Check out other rides in the Catskills at the rest of the website as well.

Last summer, Anton wrote: “I recently rode a hilly 45-mile route that connects three neighboring villages to retrace childhood memories; each holds fond memories for me. But more relevant to this post, cycling between these villages is a fun adventure in pass hunting– the sport of riding over mountain passes towards a goal of having completed a defined number of passes within a region. Popular in France (rules of the game), it’s gaining popularity here in the US. It’s sort of the cycling equivalent of hiking clubs, where the goal is to have hiked over a defined group of mountain peaks. So instead of following major roads between the villages that skirt around and thereby avoid the mountains, I opt to ride up and over the mountains along the most remote, least traveled mountain passes and carriage roads I can find, choosing dirt over pavement wherever possible”.

You’ve heard about the Asian Longhorn Beetle, the Emerald Ash Borer — now learn about the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid.

On Saturday, March 8, 2014, join Mine Kill State Park staff, regional biologists and the Student Conservation Association to learn about the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) and its terrible effect on New York’s eastern hemlock trees. There will be an informative presentation on the history, origins and current status of HWA in New York State by Cornell University Professor, Mark Whitmore. Following the presentation, participants will split into groups and learn how to survey hemlock trees for the presence of HWA. Data collected from the survey will be used to construct a comprehensive management plan for HWA at Mine Kill State Park. Additional surveys will provide further information on the status effort to contain HWA and preserve as many of Mine Kill’s beautiful hemlocks as possible.

And the adelgids don’t stop at the park’s borders.

March 8th, 10am to 2pm at the New York Power Authority Blenheim-Gilboa Visitors Center located on State Route 30 in North Blenheim, NY.

The program is free of charge to the public. A chili lunch and other refreshments will be provided.

February 24, 2014 – Members of the CMC spotted the rare and calorie free snow donut while cross country skiing on the Catskill Scenic Trail in Roxbury. This interesting phenomena occurs when snow conditions are just right, and we were lucky to be there to see it.

Mike and Becky Porter have been organizing a hike on Balsam Lake Mountain on Super Bowl Sunday for as long as we can remember. It is a fun hike, sometimes with snowshoes, sometimes not. 3 miles to the fire tower, where hikers picnic on the lunch they’ve packed. 6 miles total. Becky says “sleds are optional- they are fun on the steep parts!!” — her favorite part of the day.

Becky also says “summiting is overrated” …so sometimes if the snow is deep or the ice is bad the group may not make it to the Fire Tower.

Plan to bring warm drinks, water and good snacks. Dress in warm layers, hand warmers suggested.

Meet in Margaretville at 10 or at the trailhead on Millbrook Rd at 10:15. Contact Becky Porter at mport@catskill.net for Margaretville meeting location and for more information.

Kick off the New Year with a First Day hike with the CMC on the Shavertown Trail in the Town of Andes. This lovely 5.3 mile hike takes you past a beautiful pond with a lovely view of the reservoir and through a lovely, mature woodland. The first section of the trail is moderate and the second section is relatively easy.

There may be snow and/or ice, so bring a traction device such as Microspikes. The forecast is for colder weather so dress in layers of clothing made from a wicking material and expect the possibility of a steady wind. We probably won’t stop for long given the temperatures but bring a snack and plenty of water. Registration Required. To register contact annroberti@yahoo.com or 845-676-3643. Please contact hike organizer about bringing dogs.

Directions: From SR 28/30 in Margaretville, go west about 3 miles to the dividing of the highways. Turn south onto SR 30 and go 8 miles to the Shavertown Bridge Boat Launch on the left, just after turning right onto CR 1.

From SR 28 in Andes, turn south onto CR 1 and travel 8 miles to the Shavertown Bridge Boat Launch on the right.

On Sunday, December 8th, a fine group of hikers took on a 12 mile section of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail. We thought we could do this section in 4 hours but there was just too much to look at and photograph! If you have not checked out this trail, we highly recommend it. We hope to come back soon on our cross country skis!

We started from Dewitt Mills Road in Rosendale, just south of the Kingston city line, where there is no official parking area but pull-off parking on the shoulder near the trail crossing is allowed when no snow plowing is needed. Entry points are also available at several other road crossings. (See maps on theWallkill Valley Rail Trail Association for more info on access points and parking.) Check out our photos and more…

On Sunday, December 8th, a fine group of hikers took on a 12 mile section of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail. We thought we could do this section in 4 hours but there was just too much to look at and photograph! If you have not checked out this trail, we highly recommend it. You can do much shorter sections, or longer. We hope to come back soon on our cross country skis!Continue reading →

November 14, 2014 – Many thanks to the Catskill Forest Association for the beautiful benches they donated to the Shavertown Trail. The larch benches were created by Mike Porter from trees on nearby Dingle Hill. The CMC “bench” team installed the benches as winter descended on us. Thank you (I guess), to Frank Winkler, for his witticisms.

The CMC is doing a lot of work keeping the trails you love open and clear of downed trees, skin ripping blackberry bushes and other hazards. In addition, we’re laying out and building new trails. We’d love to have your help….it really is a fun day in the woods and you’ll have the pride of knowing you contributed to the trails you love. Click here to learn more….